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More importantly, why am I in here alone? And where is Lina?
I racked my brain furiously, trying to remember as much as I could of what happened before everything went fuzzy. We had been walking through the valley, and I stepped into a mushroom circle. Rumplestiltskin had looked afraid—for Lina.
And she…
She had left with the fairies.
Of her own free will? Or forcibly? I strained to remember what felt like a dream. She’d looked back sadly. Her mouth moved, but I hadn’t heard what she’d said. Then, she flew after the two fairies.
“Rumplestiltskin?” Maybe the goblin was still here.Or maybe he’s gone after her.
I bolted up to better access the button in an effort to escape, to go after her, wherever that was… and that’s when I noticed something else, something nearly as important as the fact that someone had buttoned me into this weird cocoon.
I was naked.
What in sweet fairy hell is going on?
I managed to undo the button, with no small amount of aggravation, finally stepping into the hazy, overcast light of the world outside. My eyes were still adjusting when a gruff voice startled me.
“For the love of the forsaken forest,” Rumplestiltskin grumbled. “Put these on.” A wad of fabric hit me before I saw it coming, and I felt my cheeks warm.
These weren’t my clothes, wherever they had gone, but I scrambled into the soft tunic and shirt he had thrown at me, before I finally looked around.
My jaw dropped.
Rumplestiltskin had grown, somehow. Not stretched out, but proportionally, so he was nearly my height now but twice as wide. His scowl was even more horrifying up close, his pupils a swirling mass of gold and onyx instead of the solid color they had appeared before.
“How are you big?” I blurted out.
If anything, his scowl deepened.
“The girl was too easy on you,” he muttered. “Not so much blind as stupid, are you?”
I looked skyward before I said something that would only make us both angrier, when we needed to focus on finding Lina… but what I saw stopped me short. I had been so fixated on him, so caught up in the oddity of the situation, I hadn’t bothered to look around me.
At first, I thought we were no longer in the valley, but in a strange, purple forest. Then, my gaze landed on the fabric beneath me, a very specific shade of blue, one Lina had told me years ago was her favorite color for me to wear.
Rumplestiltskin was right.I am stupid.
I was standing on my shirt—my shirt which I was no longer wearing, because it was far, far too big for me. And the purple forest… it was the violets, only they were taller than I was.
Because I was the size of a fairy. And so was Rumplestiltskin.
* * *
“This ishow you were holding her.” I finally spoke after staring around in disbelief for what felt like an hour, but was probably more like five minutes. “She wasn’t big. You… you were tiny.”
“Nothing gets by you.” He rolled his eerie yellow eyes.
I can’t even fault him, this time.
“We have to go after her,” I said, abruptly. “You said you knew where the fairy kingdom is.”
“Of course, we’ll go after her,” he grumbled, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “useful as dragon fodder” under his breath. “But what took her a couple of hours by flight, will take us days on the ground.”
“We don’t have days.” I shook my head.
“We don’t have a choice,” he grated. “It’s safe to say you aren’t hiding any wings under there, given that I just saw more of you than anyone would ever want to.”
